36. Alone Time

We have none. In each apartment mom looks for 6 beds and wifi. Sometimes, people get creative with what is considered a bed. Take Nice, for example. 1 master bedroom, 1 pullout couch, 1 loft, and underneath the loft was what deceivingly looked like a twin bed. You might have guessed, I got the "twin bed." Okay, It could be considered a day bed. For a midget. Not trying to be offensive, but no one in the Friend family would fit in that bed. It looked like you might be able to take off a cushion and make it bigger. No. Maybe it was some type of pullout. No. That first night I slept with my head raised at a 60 degree angle, and my feet hanging into the cleaning closet. No worries, Brody offered - was forced - to share his bed with me. Nothing beats sharing a twin bed with your 9 year old brother!

Here's Brody's loft

As for privacy, there is none. We are all right next to each other every minute of every day. Yay family bonding! However some of the apartments have a very unique layout. Dad calls them Weasley  apartments. Here's the creepy Nice staircase.

 European buildings are just connected in the most random ways. No walls are straight, and ceilings curve so that you can tell these rooms were not rooms at one point in time. After spending all of Christmas break watching HBO shows about renovating houses, I know this is a designers worst nightmare. In Florence, we had one of the bigger apartments, but the bathroom was about the size of a port-a-potty. However on one side of the bathroom was outside nook that served absolutely no purpose. It was like a column of extra space in the apartment complex where someone decided to put a window so we could look out and admire another wall. But with all of these oddly shaped apartments, we find places to make our own. Last week Brody spent every minute in the loft, Arden hardly ever leaves her room, and the rest of us get along well in the living room. When we get tired of one another, we improvise.